Our little Keiki Palmtree

A wise 4 year old once told me (in response to my directive that I would always be here for her no matter what), "NO you aren't, you are always shopping or in Hawawee"! So on that note, we promptly booked a trip for our niece Edynn and her chaperon (my sister who informed us they are a package deal) to join Dennis and I in Hawaii.

Check out the new purse
 mommy is holding for Edynn

Our "girls" arrived Thursday, March 29th to one of the best holidays of our lives. From the moment they landed Edynn was in holiday mode. She began at the airport by showing us the purse and flower hair clip she picked up on their stop over in Maui (she was picking gifts for everyone at the Maui airport gift shop before the holiday even began. Auntie has trained her well!) She proceeded to line us up for pictures before we even left the arrivals terminal.

Once our impromptu photo session was over, we headed to dinner at Huggos where Edynn promptly parked herself on the ground beside the table and began a treasure hunt in the sand.

Bucket List Item #1

This was followed with her first drink out of a coconut (the first of many items on her bucket list).

Ever the style queen, Edynn donned her bathing suit and sunglasses and we headed to Hapuna Beach for the first of many days in the sun. Although Shauna and Dennis and I could have spent many a day basking at the beach, Edynn decided the loud waves and vast waters were not for her. In turn, we had many group debates on the pros and cons of the beach versus the hot tub at the villa. And on one such occasion, Edynn relented, crossing her arms and stating "fine I will go to the beach, but I will not be happy about it all day!". This only lasted as long as it took for uncle to put on his snorkel and for Edynn to mount his back for a ride around in the ocean bellowing directions through his snorkel. Shauna had to inform her that it was not a microphone and uncle was in fact trying to breathe through it!

Not being all that fond of swimming, we purchased a water turtle for the little miss to use when swimming in the "hot tub". This was soon followed by a life jacket, when she saw the other kids swimming about freely. To further subdue her fear of the water, we got her her own snorkel and spent an evening showing her how it worked from the comfort of our own bath tub. Much to our surprise, our subdued turtle morphed into a little fish and soon we could not get her out of the water (she has since returned home and passed two levels of swimming in one session)!

With her daughter no longer in need of her turtle, Shauna took ownership of the little guy. Shying away from the camera, it took many a try to capture the twosome in their natural environment (on the way to the pool, in the pool and on their way back from the pool).

Aside from wasting our days away in the water, we also ventured out to see the sites. On one of our outings, we went to a Macadamia Nut Factory, where Edynn and Shauna took turns cracking nuts (this will come in handy the next time Owen steps out of line). There were many samples of Mac Nuts to be tasted (chocolate, caramel, honey mustard,etc.) and Shauna told Edynn she could select a tin to eat on the way back to the villa. With such an array of sweet choices, the last flavour you would expect her to select (or anyone else for that matter) was SPAM! But sure enough she insisted on the Spam nuts (Spam coincidentally is a big thing in Hawaii). Without getting into to much graphic detail, lets just say that a can of Spam nuts looks the same going in as it does coming out. Our poor girl ended up almost crapping on uncle while he wrestled with her on the floor. After getting her cleaned up she was more concerned with hearing stories about "uncle pooping his pants" than she was with the fact that she had to spend most of the day close to the commode.

The one highlight of this day (and for Shauna and Edynn the entire trip), was not only that they got to feed the dolphins, but Edynn's stomach settled long enough for her to do so with her mom. Dennis and I treated the girls to a session with the dolphins at the Hilton where they were able to get up close and personal with these beautiful creatures.

Of course being the girls we are, we had to get in a little shopping. This may in fact have been a highlight for Dennis as Edynn proceeded to scare the crap out of him by camouflaging herself amongst some mannequins. She stood perfectly still holding the hand of one of the mannequins while he frantically searched for her. One of the sales ladies even put a hat on her! When he found her he was giving her shit and she just stood stone faced playing the part of an ever silent clothes horse! As Shauna and I moved into the bathing suit section, Dennis was tasked with doting on Edynn at the closest makeup counter counter - pretending to do her makeup and give her a manicure and pedicure. This girl has learned so well from her Auntie that she may soon assume the official title of "princess" in our family and I may have to hand over my crown!

As the girls trip drew to a close, we managed to spend Easter Morning taking Edynn to an Easter Egg hunt put on in Waikoloa at the Queen's Market. Here she was able to hunt for Easter eggs with thousands of other children. Ever the sweet girl that she is she was worried about getting any eggs and Shauna had to help her in her passive quest (she is too caring to push others out of the way like most kids did). She got quite the haul but was most excited about spending the afternoon at the pool. Here is one of my favorite pictures of my two favorite people in one of my favorite places!

The girls left us (too many tears) but not before promising to join us in 2013 with Owen and Alex. This was one of the BEST trips Dennis and I have ever had and we look forward to to many more adventures and laughs with the Jones'.

P.S. Edynn skyped with us upon her return home to tell us that she "hates it here" (here being back in Calgary) and she has since tried to convince Shauna to move to Hawaii. A girl after my own heart!